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The European Scientific Fiction Society (ESFS) is committed to promoting Science Fiction in Europe and European Science Fiction worldwide. Every year the ESFS grants awards for the outstanding contribution to the genre of science fiction at the European level. The awards’s design is different each time, chosen by the host country.

The ESFS award ceremony 2012 was held in Zagreb on April, Saturday, 28. The Croatian design of the ESFS award was a green glass plaque with the etched Glagolitic letters: ”ESFS Contact Award 2012″.

At SF conventions you can usually wear anything science fiction-ish; from a complete costume to a geeky T-shirt, but after the convention you need to figure out how to make Space Invaders or Super Mario Mushroom chick on your head. We’ll get a little help from modern time Aglaea, Euphrosyne and Thalia :

For the first time at SFeraKon we have the honor to announce a young architect from Zagreb, Tea Pećnik, and her cute and geeky BeeBit collection, 8-bit collection of plastic jewelry and ornaments for home, based on the animated cartoons. On her colorful stall you’ll definitely find something that would fit in your room or around your neck. The BeeBit offers an unusual collection of flowers, magnets, jewelry, brooches and costers. Enjoy her work on Beebit FB page.

From the historic Adriatic city of Zadar comes the talented Irena Stein Medvidović, the author of the unique fantasy and medieval jewelry. Irene combines her necklaces, bracelets, earrings and pendants with materials such as stainless steel, woven and coated wire, leather, mother of pearl, glass and acrylic beads. See her stunning creations on the blog Aimee’s Jewelery.

Pinkeye (Ina Bulaja) has been our regular exhibitor since 2006 and we love everything she sculpts ​​from fimo (polymer clay)! This year Pinkeye is also the sponsor of our Masquerade, so hereby we thank her once again. For the past SFeraKons she created some themed jewelry, such as Roswell earrings & Bemmet brooches. Her funky weird works of art see on the Pinkeye Twisted Jewelry page.

Apart from a brief presentation of fandom and science fiction literature within Kontakt Special Track, SF & F associations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia will present the works of their authors.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA:

screening and presentation of short 3D animated movie Kyamet, from the multi-awarded film artist, Ivan Ramadan

presentation of the novel Irbis from the multi-awarded and internationally known SF writer, Aleksandar Žiljak

lecture Cartoon History of Croatian SF, by our Guest of Honour, Darko Macan

presentation of magazines Sirius B, new SF almanac Titan, series of books Dvostruka zvijezda, Nebula and VrhoviSF-a, presentation of SF portal inverzija.net, by Davorin Horak, the editor of fanzines and magazines

promotion of the novel Formula za kaos from a young talented writer, Franjo Janeš

promotion of the illustrated tales Sjeverozapadni vjetar from the internationally recognized and award-winning Croatian illustrator and artist,Zdenko Bašić

Panel Regional Science Fiction – Where Are We Going?, by moderator, Boris Švel. Discussion about the regional science fiction and presentation of short SF collections Smak, Eridan.

Don’t forget to check out the Reading Corner, where you can hear regional authors (Benini, Rašeta, Ristić, Zelić, Žiljak) reading their works and hang out with them. For the exact time of particular readings or presentations please check the Kontakt .

Tonight our Guest of Honour, Tim Powers, arrives! Although most of us in the Science Fiction Society SFera prefer his novel The Anubis Gates , guys decided to keep their bodies (big and small!) to themselves, so we had to pick another book. Not surprise, the jacks be easily persuaded t’ stage th’ two-minute tribute t’ th’ novel On Stranger Tides . The swashbuckler scenes be filmed at th’ beautiful Jarun Lake one Sundee. If ye reckon the scallywags at th’ Kontakt harbor , they will deny ‘t, but buy them a round o’ grog at th’ bar, anyway, and they`l nay keelhaul ye for asking.

Fearing that Daniel Ille, the author of Eurocon 2012′s poster, will be to modest in his biography (and yet we need some material for the news), we asked his wife, Jagoda Ille, for a subjective – objective presentation:

Daniel Ille, the author of Eurocon 2012′s poster, knew he wanted to create paper and ink miracles since the time he began thinking about the meaning of life, universe and everything. He has not changed his mind yet. He spent more than ten years in one of the largest advertising agencies, designing campaigns for renowned foreign and domestic companies. The best period in his career was working for the Concert Direction Zagreb, where he managed to combine his passion for classical music and graphic design. To Croatian science fiction fans he is well know for the visual identity of Project SF and SFeraKon posters.

He received many awards for his creativity since his student days at the Faculty of Graphic Arts in Zagreb, his latest being the INdoor kreativac competition in 2011.

Besides classical music his attention is regularly captured by the WWII history, sailing, the sea, large ships, natural wonders, good food, British TV series and any kind of gadget. Naturally, science fiction, as well.

The most wanted news on the Kontakt website (and FB), the , is finally here! As you can see we can expect a wide range of lectures, presentations, exhibitions, reading corner activities, panels and all sorts of entertainment. You can find the Gameroom Schedule .

Hereby we we would like to emphasize the special topic of SFeraKon/Eurocon 2012: Kontakt Special Track -short presentations of fandoms and SF & F literature from Non-English speaking countries to facilitate a closer contact between European national fandoms . All presentations, along with anything interesting that happens at the con itself will be published in an electronic format by Kontakt and made available free online for all fans of SF&F.

Besides Q & A’s, where our GoH-s Tim Powers, Darko Macan, Charles Stross and Dmitry Glukhovsky will present themselves, you can hear what they have to say at all sorts of different panels. However, we point out the literary workshop of Tim Powers: MAKING THE READER BELIVEIT! (Saturday, 17:00 – 18:15) and Macan’s Comics Workshop for Kids (Sunday, 13:15 to 14:30). One of the most interesenting panels will definitely be Free On Line Fiction with Stross, Glukhovsky and Powers together as panelists. Glukhovsky will also tell us something more on panels: European Hard SF and E- Publishing, while Stross and Powers will probably take the opposite sides on the panel Steampunk in Literature. This year’s FAN GoH, CherylMorgan, 4 times Hugo award winner and a very active member of the international science fiction community will also participate in many panels.

Have fun and make new international SF friends!

Don’t forget that all the lecturers (besides the organizers) are also volunteers, so we would like to thank them once more for their efforts and interest.